The issues I had installing logjam, and my correspondences with its developer resulted in a pretty interesting discussion about SSL assumptions / mistakes Mandrake made with 8.0, and the related issue of how much security is desirable for a public service like LJ. Read it here.
Coasters
Trying to use gcombust to burn CDs in Linux last night… never made so many coasters in my life. Couldn’t figure out why, finally pulled the SCSI card and moved it to the Win machine, only to be beset by a ton of configuration and writing problems there as well (using Nero). Finally figured those out, but there are a dozen wasted CD blanks in the trash now. I don’t think I’ve ever made a blank in BeOS. Damn, Be got so much so right, made so much so easy.
Today found out that you pretty much have to change the priority level of the cd burning app in linux. One guy claims that
nice –15 gcombust &
will do the trick. That makes a certain amount of sense, but I’m not sure how to interpret this. Does it mean that:
A) The Linux scheduler is really dumb and can’t figure out anything for itself.
B) Linux is very coarsely multithreaded.
C) This is somehow “desired or expected behavior” and that a user so clueless that he didn’t know he had to do that to begin with has no business using Linux.
Milk People
Amy suggested i do something relaxing, so made this:
logjam
Breakthrough – finally punched out of RPM hell and got the exact combination of library versions of openssl, curl, and libcrypto symlinks to re-enable my Samba network (which I broke while trying to get logjam installed) and for the logjam installer itself to work.
It’s funny how there are so many things that are ridiculously difficult in Linux, and it’s easy to curse them for it because they shouldn’t be difficult, but that’s also what’s attractive about it – the problem solving and the education that comes with that.
But it’s funny – Amy said I only seem to swear at the computer when I’m using Linux, so why am I getting more into it? Good question.
LUG
Just returned from a Linux user’s group mtg. Small group, about seven people. But very fiery. Despite all of my complaints about Linux and the weaknesses of the OSS development model (to which few zealots will admit), I have to admit that it’s very contagious. The thing is, there is FIRE in the Linux world now. The last year of BeOS has been almost nothing but depression. People begging for breadcrumbs, grateful for any scrap thrown our way. Linux is very much still in the process of self-creation. The love and the lunacy is still there. I thrive on that. Everyone thrives on that.
Cute
The kitties were so cute today. They were sitting around smoking weed and listenting to Rush 2112. Then Plato wouldn’t budge from the couch and was bogarting the Cheetos bag. Louise was running around acting like she had just made a deal with the devil. It just kills me when they do that.
Samba
Set up a home Samba network for the first time. Hair-pulling experience at first. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding one little key, then the whole things busts open…
The Failure of Tech Journalism
Thanks to for pointing out this excellent piece: The Failure of Tech Journalism. It addressess so much of what I have come to see as bogus about the field in which I’ve placed myself, but doesn’t mention the one thing that’s bothered me the most over the years: The fact that tech pubs disavow any responsibility for their hand in the manufacturing of reality. Not to harp on the BeOS thing, but using that as an example… if you ask any tech pub why they didn’t do more BeOS coverage, they would answer “We report on what’s popular and in use.” But they will not acknowledge that what’s popular and in use is partially so because of the role tech pubs play in making that thing or product popular to begin with.
It’s the same with the non-tech news as well of course. People think about and talk about what’s in the headlines. Is yet another little girl stuck in a well, or this week’s homerun hero, really as important as the Chinese occupation of Tibet? Nobody would say that it is. But surprisingly few Americans even know what goes on in Tibet because we’re too obsessed with Gary Condit et al. And we’re obsessed with Condit because that’s the diet we’re currently being fed.
Not being able to cover the things that I felt were most interesting, not just most popular, is the factor that drove me away from ZD to begin with. I think this whole phenomenon is central – that media does as much to create the popular mindset as it does to reflect it. But the tech media almost never acknowledges this role.
Racing Stripes, Hill Hike, Geek Beer
Someone called my cell phone at 6:30 with a wrong number (I hate that). Was at ‘s house by 10 with to help apply racing stripes to Chris’ Miata. Quite a tedious job, but kind of meditative. Way more difficult than it looks. The vinyl bubbles and buckles and you have to work out all the glitches with sponges and sewing needles.
Left there at 3:00 to meet up with Josh for a planned hike w/dog Stella in the Berkeley hills, to connect up, sweat in the afternoon sun, toss a frisbee to a joyous canine expressing her dog-hood through the bark and the sniff. Josh didn’t know what a Miata is. I asked, “What universe do you live in?” He answered, “You know what universe I live in. The one inhabited by bodhisattvas and free jazz musicians.” Sometimes I forget. It’s weird, Josh and I used to be so close, and he still lives right next door, but we’ve drifted in recent years, our interests so far apart in many ways. Yet we still share a bond, an understanding that goes beyond everything else.
My universe used to be inhabited by free jazz musicians and freaks on the weird-ass literary fringes. Now it’s all digital everything. Or mostly. Sometimes I forget that I’m unbalanced. Josh helps me remember in the kindest ways.
`
Off to the Edinburgh Castle in SF to meet with Andrew Orlowski, a journalist from The Register and Henry Kingman, an old friend from ZD, who later ran all the Linux stuff for CNET but who has just lost his job there (same story everywhere you turn these days). This pub does a trivia contest – the questions were harder than expected. Another of their friends, Robin Bandy, is part of the CLIQ collective, who do all kinds of programming and web hosting. They also offer DSL, and I’ve been shopping. Cool. Looks like I’ll be getting DSL from a tatooed geek collective in my own backyard. Reasonable deals, lots of freedom, good politics.
Great to get to know Andrew and Henry too. Henry had a good job suggestion: SSC, who run Linux Journal, and who almost published The BeOS Journal, which I labored my heart out on a couple of years ago. Hmm… very promising possibility. Andrew told me all about the internal workings of The Register, which I have always admired. What I like about them is that it’s sort of gonzo technology journalism, very different from the usual copycat mainstream tech journalism style. I think they have a great chance of ultimately succeeding because they come from anarchy, are growing organically, not the brainchild of some MBA with a bunch of startup funds and a product no one wants.
Somehow I feel a bit more connected to knowing what I want do next after this night out. Know that I want/need to hook up with something I believe in, something I can rally behind and not just work at for the sake of having a job. Not sure yet what that thing will be, but I don’t think I can go work for a big conglomerate monolith. But neither am I willing to go back to working for a dinky underdog with no hope and no future. Something in between. Increasingly, it’s seeming that Linux provides that perfect middle ground, and that I just need to find the right niche for myself in that world.
Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
– William Carlos Williams